# Common-Law Continuity **Domain:** Legal History / Institutions / Path Dependence **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Common-law continuity is the persistence of English-derived precedent, legal concepts, procedure, and professional practice after a jurisdiction becomes politically independent.** It explains how a legal operating system can survive a constitutional break while its authority is re-grounded in the new polity. ## War With Empire Context Common-law continuity preserved practical coordination in property, contracts, courts, commerce, and professional training. It also preserved shared legal vocabulary across the Atlantic, lowering the cost of later commercial re-embedding. This is continuity of an institutional substrate, not evidence that British courts continued governing the United States. ## Sovereignty Test The relevant questions are whether local institutions can change the rules, reject precedent, develop independent doctrine, and prevent external jurisdictions from acquiring an unreviewable veto. ## Key Insight **Inherited law can be both an instrument of independence and a channel of path dependence.** ## See Also [[wiki/Reception Statutes|Reception Statutes]] · [[wiki/Useful Imperial Inheritance|Useful Imperial Inheritance]] · [[wiki/Institutional Archaeology|Institutional Archaeology]] · [[wiki/Practical Sovereignty|Practical Sovereignty]]